The 1936–37 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

Regular season

New head coach

Doug Mills Douglas Raymond "Gaga" Mills (April 9, 1907 – August 12, 1993), a native of Elgin, Illinois, was a high school and college basketball player and coach in the state of Illinois. During high school, Mills was the first player in the state to lead ...

took over the

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball The Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big Ten Conference. Home games are played at the State Farm Center, located on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's campu ...

team for the 1936–37 season replacing

Craig Ruby James Craig Ruby (May 30, 1896 – September 9, 1980) was an American college basketball player and coach. A two-time All-American and All-Missouri Valley Conference forward at the University of Missouri, he took over the head coaching position ...

. Mills was a player for the Illini from 1927 to 1930 and served as the assistant coach for the 1935–36 season. Mills' service toward the

would continue until 1947 as head coach and until 1966 as athletic director. Along with future head coach

Harry Combes Harry Combes (March 3, 1915 – November 13, 1977), a native of Monticello, Illinois, served as head men's basketball coach at University of Illinois between 1947 and 1967. Biography Combes played high school basketball for Monticello High Scho ...

, the Illini returned 7 lettermen from a team that had finished in a third place tie in the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

the year before. Even though they lost 2 home games during conference play, the Illini finished the season in a tie for the conference championship with a record of 10 wins and 2 losses. The team finished the season with an overall record of 14 wins 4 losses. Along with Combes, the Illini also featured future major league baseball hall of fame shortstop and manager,

Lou Boudreau Louis Boudreau (July 17, 1917 – August 10, 2001), nicknamed "Old Shufflefoot", "Handsome Lou", and "The Good Kid", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 15 seasons, primarily as a ...

. The starting lineup included ''captain'' Robert Riegel at the center position, Boudreau and Combes at forward and Wilbur Henry, James Vopicka and Tom Nisbet at guard. Following that season, the men's gymnasium got a new name, George Huff Gymnasium, after former Illinois athletic director George Huff, who died on October 1, 1936. During the championship season, Boudreau led the team in scoring with 8.7 points per game.

Roster

Source

Schedule

, - !colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;", Non-Conference regular season , - align="center" bgcolor="" , - !colspan=9 style="background:#DF4E38; color:#FFFFFF;", Big Ten regular season ''Bold Italic'' connotes conference game SourceUniversity of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1936–37 pg.79
FightingIllini.com

Awards and honors

** Omaha World Newspaper 2nd team All-American

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1936-37 Illinois Fighting Illini Men's Basketball Team

Illinois Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports. The University operates a number of athletic faci ...

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball seasons 1936 in sports in Illinois 1937 in sports in Illinois